Winners and Losers of the First MLS Re-Entry Draft

Recently my computer ran into a series of issues that has rendered it incapacitated and made me realize its place in my life. It loads slowly and lacks many of the modern amenities in many computers, but when working properly it is has enough memory to run fairly quickly and is perfect for the tasks for which I need it, mainly posting to this site, running my fantasy teams, and doing other mundane tasks like email and social media. I mention this because my computer is a lot like the MLS re-entry draft: the pieces available aren’t going to wow your friends and make you the envy of the league, but drafting right can give you the piece that is perfect fit for your club.

As with any draft, some teams were able to land the piece that is right for them while some whiffed on their picks. As such, below are my winners and losers from today’s draft with one caveat. Teams have a week to negotiate with their selections and failing to sign them allows the team to hold their rights, so there could be trades and non-signings over the next week which could alter these rankings, so check back for changes.

Winners

Los Angeles Galaxy: The team showed the aggressiveness and willingness to spend wisely that so many clubs refuse to do. Seeing former Arena-coached player Juan Pablo Angel sitting undrafted after three picks, the team traded its fourth round pick in the Superdraft to Houston for the fourth pick and picked up Angel from New York. The forward has scored 61 goals in the past four seasons, so he is definitely still a contributer for the Galaxy. Adding Angel to pair with Edson Buddle upfront or being the scoring option off the bench makes the Galaxy the early 2011 Supporters Shield favorite. Plus they picked up a needed young midfielder with their original pick.

Chivas USA – The club that lost its big-name star in Jonathan Bornstein this summer and missed the playoffs got the chance to finally replace him by taking Jimmy Conrad with the second pick. It gives the team a veteran defender and a player who can help them begin the climb back to the playoffs in a loaded Western Conference.

Colorado Rapids – The defending champs publicly said they were going to focus on the Superdraft and international market for club improvements. However, the club picked up veteran defender Tyrone Marshall with the last choice in the first round, good depth for a team that needed defending depth. Now if they can keep Omar Cummings they may be set.

Major League Soccer – As part of the new CBA the organization created this odd draft system where players with a certain playing time can become sort of free agents. This makes the “win” side because it gives MLS a little press in the slow winter months.

Losers

MLS fans who like Ronaldinho – The unhappy AC Milan star and LA have been negotiating behind the scenes for weeks now about a possible move to the Galaxy where the Brazilian would be the team’s third designated player. The selection of Juan Pablo Angel could endanger that depending on how negotiations go. If Angel is the team’s third designated player, then Ronaldinho or another big-name international star loses that slot.

D.C. United – Going into this draft process, D.C. United clearly needed two things: offense and defense. The club has eschewed defense with its two picks of Joseph Ngwenya in the first part of the draft and today with Josh Wolff. But the club passed on a ton of bigger named players who might have had a more definite impact. Consider this: United this offseason released Danny Allsopp, who had five goals for the club. The two re-entry selections had a combined three goals in 2010. A disappointing draft.

Jaime Moreno: If Jaime Moreno decides he still wants to play, and at times he has hinted as much, his chances took a hit today as he went undrafted and enters the free agent pool. But more importantly Jeff Cunningham was taken by the rebuilding Columbus Crew, who needed a veteran striker. Now Cunningham will have a chance to pass Moreno in the all-time MLS scoring list for good, a nice honor for the veteran but a misfortune for the current record holder.

Guillermo Barros Schelotto – The 2008 MVP went unselected over two rounds and is now a free agent. Ouch.

You do realize that any team could have picked them in this draft and if they didn’t sign them after a period of time they are out NOTHING ?

Noone wanted them.

GBS is a mystery to me. GI Joe, he is not making DP money. I read he was making $200k. Whatever the number he dropped the DP status a few years ago. I wish the Sounders would have grabbed him. Get rid of Jaqua to stay under the salary cap.

In the overall perspective, I think this CBA is a good evolution for MLS, but please, instead of making 2 re-entry drafts, with a week on the middle, why not make just 1? Because as it is today, the first re-entry draft is pointless, every team will always wait one more week to hide their strategy and will try on that week to negociate, a little bit more, salaries with the potential draftees.
Schelotto isn’t a loser on this draft! Every team on MLS wants a player with his technical abilitiy, the thing is that none wants to pay a DP salary for someone that is old, tired and not motivated to win in this league. Perhaps like it is today, is better for Schelotto to get a new challenge on another country! Farewell Schelotto!

I don’t know how you can call DCU “losers” in this draft since they had the first overall selection in both stages so they got exactly what they wanted. You clearly disagree with their choices, but that’s different from saying they “lost.”

I put them in the losers column (I would never call them losers!) because they took that first pick and passed on players who could have either solidified their porous defense or picked a more proven goal scorer. They missed a chance to really add a big name who could be a major contributor.

Big American media or even soccer blogs are not paying too much attention to the Abu Dhabi, 2010 FIFA Club World Cup where the best of each continental region are playing for the title of the best soccer team in the world. The biggest shocker this year was the elimination of the South American champion, Internacional from Brazil by the African confederation champion, the incredible Mazembe from DR Congo. The Cinderella Mazembe will face now in the final, next Saturday, the heavily favorite Internazionale from Milan. The Concacaf representative, Pachuca, from Mexico, got the fifth place among seven participants, after beating on penalty kicks the local team Al-Wahda. Pachuca was never a contender during the competition, and was elected by many journalists one of the worst teams in the tournament, but the worst issue is that for those same experts it wasn’t not a surprise considering the region where the team is coming from. Something to think about it.

Sergio, come on. It’s a big name tournament, but it’s not as glorious as it sounds. Pachuca is in shambles at the moment. They are certainly not a fair representation of the region. If Mazembe beats Inter Milan, which is possible since Inter has more important things to worry about, will Africa be the best region in world soccer? It’s a small 2-3 round winners advance tournament. The biggest thing that will come of it is some African soccer pride, and some of their players getting looks from bigger clubs. Do you think the Italians will parade in the street if they win? Not likely.

It is a FIFA Club World Cup. Who really cares if Concacaf sent the best team, Pachuca is the Concacaf champion and there are millions of dollars involved in winning this thing, they are not there on vacations.
But once you ask a question, let me ask you back? Do you believe the Spaniards are the best national team in the world? I don’t think so and nobody really think they are, but, they are the world champions. Who cares what we think, a Fifa world title is history and no one changes history, it is there forever.

And I gonna tell you more, if I was this Gulat or whatever is running the American soccer federation I would do everything I could to bring the Fifa world cup club to United States for at least five years. It would automatically open a slot to an American team and maybe two if they ever beat the Mexicans. Americans could use more than one city and have teams from all over the world playing here every year without having the freaking expenses of a World Cup. Being the host of this short but important tournament would bring all the big shots from FIFA here every single year, showing public support and developing a better relationship with those delegates. And, most important, in the moment an American team start disputing the Fifa Club World Cup and beat the big boys, then, you would start seeing how important that tournament would become for the American media.

They recently played against Argentina and Portugal, do you know the scores? Did you watch Spain against Chile? on the WC? How about against the Switzerland? And if they are so good why they refused to play the new Brazilian squad on a “friendly” match IN SPAIN???

I believe the World Club Cup gets very little coverage in Europe too (certainly this is true in England, even on the couple of occasions that English teams were involved). Traditionally, the competition (and it’s predecessor, the Intercontinental Cup) has always been taken more seriously in South America for some reason.

I think Mazembe’s success against Internacional is just what the tournament needs though. Hopefully this might lead to it capturing the imagination a little more in future.

Really? Well, let’s see…Every victory for Inter Milan was first page on at least 10 of the largest European portals on the internet and made the first page on every Italian newspaper. The two larges Argentinians newspaper had full coverage of the tournament and in Brazil every portal and newspaper covered the event as big news. And saying that the club cup has not the same importance for the Europeans is not true. Go to those clubs museums and see how they had it reported their victories on the tournament. See the pictures of their fans celebrating and the space reserved for the trophy, then you can tell me they don’t care. Their problem is not the tournament but the South-Americans. let’s face it, it must be hard on them, they keep going to South America and buying every single great player those clubs had ever produced, then, those same clubs without their superstars and with a salary budget twenty times smaller go the club world cup and usually beat their multimillion dollar team. So, their fans say they don’t care, but I remember very well when Liverpool won, how their fans reacted. It is always hard for the Europeans to have in their minds who really plays the best soccer in the world, the South-Americans understand that and respect their feelings. But, watch the final Saturday and see for yourself how many Italians had traveled to the Emirates for a tournament “they don’t care”.
Cheers
And Dave C, it is normal for a guy like you to confuse soccer with boxing, you are American man…hehehe

Before the internet Toby Keith start saying BS, cool off, this was just a joke between me and Dave.
Take care, man.

I’ve been watching the Club World Cup (unfortunately saw the score by accident before watching 2 of the games on delay), and I’m a bit outraged that FSC doesn’t plan to show the Final live on Saturday. Not only that, but they’re showing the third place match in prime time – the final is not on until 11 pm. I wrote them a message basically saying that if they weren’t fully committed to showing the tournament live then they shouldn’t have bought the rights to it in the first place. But, I’m sure there will be some pirate feed available on the internet.